The VW deception – what not to do
This morning in the Australian Federal Court, VW Australia explained it had no knowledge of what head office in Germany will admit or deny in relation to the ‘defeat device’. Justice Foster gave Volkswagen until 17 December to clarify its position.
Peter Wilkinson Charles Bannister
Since VW Group admitted in mid September, “Our company was dishonest…. we totally screwed up,” it’s been almost impossible to work out the strategy the organisation is employing to recover. What the car owners want is to regain trust including a clear roadmap on what the company is going to do to rectify the problem, plus speedy compensation. This involves clear, consistent, concise and constant updates.
Regaining trust should be a relatively short journey, made easy because VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat owners, generally, love their cars.
Instead there’s been a mishmash of messages. Some messages have displayed disunity and in-fighting at the executive and board level. Others indicate confusion about who knew what. Then there’s been random communications, even including unusual gifts to some owners of $500, which seems an odd sum considering a car is for many either their biggest or second biggest purchase.
In the confusion VW Group has lost control of the message, a no-no in a crisis, and the news has been dominated by negative stories.
Six Steps in Crisis PR
• Executing a good communication plan in stressful situations starts with a clear, simple, well thought through values-based strategy. This requires a strong, united leadership, in touch with its stakeholders’ needs and values.
• This translates into strong messaging, the simpler and the fewer, the better. This includes the apology and the roadmap to recovery. It also includes the company messaging about financial stability and commitment to quality. Again, this isn’t hard, VW is a hitherto respected company with quality products.
• Then spokespeople are needed who are keen and competent to spread the messages.
• Next, simplicity; we need to ensure the spokespeople can execute the messages simply. There’s a tendency here to be technical when it’s not needed. Repetition = Penetration = Impact.
• Then VW needs to be nimble, hard for a global conglomerate, but important. To win the news cycle you have to be first.
• And finally, they have to loosen the purse strings. You can’t weasel you way out of a crisis on a skinny budget.
In Crisis PR, think like a political party
It’s really no different to a well run political campaign selling a difficult policy change. As we know from politics, a well thought out policy, with clear and compelling messages, well communicated with strong spokespeople, will go a long way towards calming anxious people.
The communication from the VW Group is akin to the disastrous communication from the Malaysians following the first Malaysian Airlines disaster, and the Japanese government following the Fukushima catastrophe.
The Class Actions
VW’s poor communication has provided and opportunity for lawyers to fill the information vacuum. Into a void flows other people’s messaging.
We are working with Bannister Law, which was first to file a class action with the Australian Federal Court (see photo).
Our task is to reach the Australians who own approximately 99,000 cars affected by the ‘defeat device’ and let them know what’s happening.
Now, those six steps need to be applied to our legal campaign.
For us too, it’s about trust. Our strategy is to be completely frank with affected car owners about what we can do, and their prospects.
Our task is to get cut-through, a minnow in a sea of information. Tactically, to reach people involves advertising, news media and social media, with clear, consistent, concise and constant messaging.
Other reading:
Media Training – an essential skill
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-22/volkwagen-us-head-admits-we-totally-screwed-up/6795826
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-22/how-volkswagen-fooled-us-regulators/6793652
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/explainer/diesel-engines-and-how-vws-defeat-device-worked
